RESPONSIBILITIES
Long hidden behind an innocuous (i.e., dull) name within the labyrinthine bowels of the Senate's budget, the OES is responsible for the collection, analysis or exploitation of information and intelligence in support of law enforcement, imperial security, defense and foreign policy objectives.
This can take on many forms, from communication intercepts to asset gathering to counter-intelligence to black ops in alien civilizations, as OES utilizes operatives throughout the Empire on both domestic and foreign missions.
OPERATIVES
Field agents for OES actively recruit assets within and without the UEE to keep the Senate apprised of potential crises and growing threats to imperial security. Known within OES as associates, they are charged with digging up information or turning assets for OES analysts to consume.
AWARENESS
The existence of OES is still heavily guarded. The Imperator, the Military and the Advocacy are all aware that the Senate has a clandestine agency at their disposal, but having to sift through wild conjecture and unreliable sources, they can't isolate exactly where it is or even who's in charge. Also, associates embedded within those organizations are very good at disrupting any potential leads.
That isn't to say that the OES is an open book to all of the Senate. Senators have to be in office for several terms before they are brought into the fold about the agency's existence.
References
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